Incumbent Democrat Anthony Brindisi for New York’s 22nd Congressional District leads his Republican challenger Claudia Tenney by only 13 votes.
Sources told Newsmax the Democrats’ “sudden claim of victory is very misleading.”
It’s all about Oneida County because officials used Post-Its to mark the invalid ballots.
Why? Who knows because anyone with a brain knows that Post-Its do not stick to an item very long.
They also cannot find 100 ballots:
The court never gave an update Tuesday about whether or not further efforts to locate the 100 or so Oneida County ballots were successful. It was the second substantial issue with Onieda County’s ballots in as many days. Day one was the absentee, day two was affidavits. In both cases, missing sticky notes leaving a number of questions,.[Oneida County Board of Elections Commissioner Rose] Grimaldi said they tracked which ballots received objections by placing them in boxes. They only made notations on ballots themselves if they were rejected, she said.When pressed about what color the sticky notes should be, Gremaldi said she wasn’t sure because she wasn’t in the room most of the time. She said she could only testify as to what the poll workers were instructed to do.
So the board of elections has no idea “which absentee ballots – which were before them in court – had been counted in the original count, and which had not been.”
Madison County used a spreadsheet, but that wasn’t even a failsafe:
Some counties in NY-22 handled objected ballots differently. Madison County used a spreadsheet to make record of each of the objected or challenged ballots, with who objected to them and what the problem was.But even in Madison, problems arose. The accuracy of the spreadsheet fell into question Monday when Justice DelConte grew irate over each of the individual ballots not being marked separately.New York State election law makes clear that each ballot needs to be individually marked with the objections and if they were counted.
Tenney and her campaign are furious the Democrats have claimed victory in the NY22 race. From Newsmax:
“[State Supreme Court] Judge [Scott] DelConte has already verbally ruled that ballots invalid that are in [Brindisi’s] count,” the source said. “So their sudden claim of a victory is very misleading.”DelConte has ordered the counties in the 22nd District not to certify the results until he allows them to do so.A further hearing that is sure to include charges of invalid ballots cast in the race is scheduled for DelConte’s courtroom in Oswego Monday morning.“Today’s misleading and inaccurate tally is rife with errors and mistakes that must be rectified before this election is certified,” read a statement from the Tenney campaign. “It is far from final. Our team will fight to ensure the rights of every voter who cast a legal and proper ballot are preserved and not diluted. … When that is done, we feel strongly that Claudia Tenney will be certified the winner of the race for the 22nd District of New York.”
Tenney unleashed on Gov. Andrew Cuomo over the changes he made to the election rules in August:
“Here is what has happened,” Tenney told guest host Tammy Bruce. “Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order in August altering the election rules and altering how we are going to process elections.”We allowed no-excuse absentee ballots, anyone could get an absentee ballot; [they] can apply for it online, didn’t have to verify, you just have to have your name, date of birth, and address and your absentee ballot is sent.”
New York has other election problems. A person can still “cast ballots in person even after receiving an absentee ballot.” This causes election officials to waste time tracking down the absentee ballot and throw it out.
State Sen. Michael Gianaris (D) wrote a bill that “would allow election officials to open and count absentee ballots beginning on Election Day instead of waiting a full week.”
This race will not end soon. Brindisi thinks he will be sworn in in January, but that might not happen.
Dr. Luke Perry, director of the Utica College Center of Public Affairs and Election Research, thinks “the judge will order some type of recount” since the commissioners cannot determine which ballots they included in the final count.
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